


It's Grand Just Holding Your Hand

by embro



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Christmas, M/M, and a bit of boy kisses, and brings in the biscuits, and harry crushes on him from afar, but hey its a christmas fic!!!, its just stupid fluff, louis volunteers at the nursing home, so forgive my lameness because i really outdo myself with this one, yaaaay christmas!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-19
Updated: 2013-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-05 05:08:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1089960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embro/pseuds/embro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a part of a charity drive, the students could buy their classmates Christmas-themed gingerbread biscuits.</p><p>Harry's got to be the only person in school that's not got anything, but the pretty boy who wears reindeer jumpers and festive suspenders might just be making it all worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Grand Just Holding Your Hand

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Español available: [It's grand just holding your hand](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4473584) by [claveldelaire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/claveldelaire/pseuds/claveldelaire)



> Christmas fic tiiiiime!!!! yayayayayayayyyyyy  
> (tumblr is embrofic come be my friend)  
> xoxoxoxoxoxooxxo

It had never occurred to Harry that he might not actually be all that well liked in the school until now, when he was the only one in his class without a Christmas-themed gingerbread biscuit. 

It had been a charity drive organised by the nursing home down the road, where the nans would bake biscuits and the students would buy them for 50p each and give them out to their classmates. Harry didn’t want anyone to be forgotten, so he bought one for everyone in his year, and two for his extra special friends. The thought that _he_ would be the one left without any gingerbread this Christmas never even crossed his mind, so it stung deep when the boy with a woollen hat and blue and white reindeer jumper shook his head when he got to Harry’s desk. 

Harry had frowned and said “Are you sure?” 

And the boy whose cheeks were a soft pink like his lips just shook his head again. “There’s none for a Harry Styles.” Then he cleared his throat and said “Sorry” before walking over to Zayn’s desk. 

Harry looked back to watch his best mate be given three gingerbread trees and a Santa with the smallest of pouts. 

“You’ve still got the rest of the week, remember? Maybe yours just haven’t come yet.” Zayn reassured him. “Thanks for mine though.” He tacked on with one of his grins. The world was lucky a Zayn grin was so rare; the whole place would be blinded by now otherwise. 

“That’s okay.” Harry mumbled, and spun around in his seat to face the front. The boy with the reindeer jumper had been looking at him with a funny expression, and Harry blushed because it was probably pity written all over that perfect face. But the other boy looked away quickly before Harry could make any attempts at long-distance communication, so he was left to ponder what he would have said anyway; how he could say _I’m actually really cool, honest_ with only his hands and his eyes. 

When the two volounteers left to go to the next classroom, Harry shuffled down in his seat. The sound of wrappers crinkling and the smell of gingerbread filled the classroom, and Harry was only just beginning to sulk when he felt a tap on his shoulder. 

“You can have one of mine if you like.” Perrie offered with one of her pretty smiles, and Harry smiled small.

“It’s alright, you have them.” 

“Don’t worry about it Harry, I sent you one. Maybe you’ll get it tomorrow.” 

“Maybe. Thanks though.” He added with one of his famous dimpled smiles, and Perrie sat back in her seat to open up a gingerbread snowflake. 

\---

Harry sat up in his seat as soon as the volunteers from the home entered the classroom, grinning wide at the prettier one like it might increase his chances of getting some gingerbread today. All of his friends at lunch had received at least one, and Harry was getting thank yous from nearly everyone he passed, so if he didn’t get one today than there had to be something wrong.

The pretty boy was wearing a Santa hat today, and funny suspenders with little Christmas trees on them. He’d been smiling when he entered the room, talking to the other guy from the nursing home who was taller and better built with brown eyes and short hair. He was good looking too, but Harry couldn’t quite take his eyes off the blue eyed boy with the crinkly smile. It made Harry happier just looking at him. 

The teacher stopped talking when they came into the room, and gestured for the boys to come to the front. 

“Make it quick.” She’d said, and Blue Eyes nodded his head and hurried over to the first desk.

“Niall Horan.” The boy said, and Brown Eyes checked his list. He held up three fingers and the other volunteer grabbed out three biscuits and put them on his desk before heading over to the next person. 

“Don’t worry Harry, you’ll get some today!” Perrie said from behind him, and he just nodded his head to show he’d heard her. 

Blue eyes looked over at Harry a few times, just quick glances that were maybe meant to be secret, but Harry grinned each time their eyes met. He really wanted to show the other boy how nice he was, and that he really wasn’t the school weirdo who no one liked. It was a stupid thing to try to prove with creepy staring and manic grins, but Harry wasn’t really thinking all that straight. He was desperate for the older prettier guy to like him, so that when said older pretty boy was standing in front of his desk Harry beamed. 

“Harry Styles.” 

“You’re the one that bought a biscuit for everyone in your year.” Brown Eyes said with a smile. “You’ve raised 70 pounds just on your own, mate. You should be proud.” 

“Thank you.” Harry smiled back, then let his eyes flick down to the list so the guy would remember what he was there for. 

“I’m Liam, and this is Louis.” So now blue eyes had a name. 

“Hi Louis.” Harry said with his biggest smile yet. 

“H-hey, Harry.” Then Louis snatched the list out of Liam’s hands and let his eyes flicker over it. “Umm, there’s none for you today. Sorry.” 

Then he hurried off to the next desk. Liam frowned after Louis and took the list back when he was close enough, and Harry turned around to look at Perrie with sad wide eyes.

“Oh love, I’m sure you’ll get some tomorrow. You’ll just have to! All the gang bought you one, I don’t know what’s happened.” 

Harry nodded and looked back at Louis and Liam, who were thanking the teacher and leaving the doorway. He didn’t even get to give Louis a goodbye smile. 

\---

“Well this is just getting ridiculous.” Perrie snapped, when on the third day Harry was still left gingerbread-less. 

“It’s alright. Umm, maybe you just forgot to buy me some or something. It’s okay.”

“Harry, we all bought you at least one gingerbread biscuit each. You should have got some of those by now.” Zayn said with a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

They were at lunch, and all of his friends had taken to stuffing their gingerbread biscuits into their locker so Harry wouldn’t feel bad. It just made him feel worse though, that he was denying them a treat because they pitied him. 

“I’m fine, guys, really. I don’t even like gingerbread all that much anyway.” 

\---

Today Louis had on some reindeer antlers and a little red nose and Harry felt about a million times worse. He didn’t even bother smiling at him this time; if anything he wanted to disappear into thin air because the pretty boy must already think he was a massive loser; that he’d been trying to buy friends with gingerbread sleighs. 

When Louis and Liam got to his desk, Harry didn’t even bother looking at them. 

“H-Harry isn’t it?” Louis said, and his voice came out a little more nasally than usual. It made Harry look up, and right into that red Rudolph nose so that he couldn’t help but smile. 

“Yeah, that’s me. Nothing again?” 

He must have sounded absolutely pathetic because Liam frowned and Louis blushed and looked down at his feet before he said “Yeah. I mean, like yeah there’s nothing. Ahh, sorry. Again.” 

“There’s got to be some kind of mistake!” Perrie squealed from behind him. 

“Yeah, I’ve bought Harry two of those things and he hasn’t got a single one of them!” Zayn added. 

Niall shouted “Yeah!” and a few of the other students muttered “Me too”s. 

“S-sorry. Umm, I’ll check on it. Tonight.” Louis stuttered, then pushed Liam over to the next person. 

Harry flopped down onto his desk, resting his chin on the cold wood and letting his hands hang loose at his sides so his knuckles were almost touching the floor. He just stared at Louis, hoping he would smile or something so he could feel a bit of happiness. 

Louis did look his way, three times in fact, but he never looked happy. He just looked apologetic and Harry wanted to cry. A boy in a reindeer antlers and nose shouldn’t be looking that sad. 

 

“It’s not like they run some major corporation where people’s orders can get lost or mixed up or whatever. It’s a fucking charity run by a fucking nursing home, it shouldn’t be this difficult!!” Perrie was raging, and banged her fist on the table to show just how much. 

“It’s alright babe, I’ll have a talk to them.” Zayn assured her, and Harry smiled sweetly at the two of them. 

“Please don’t. I’ll just ask Louis about it tomorrow.”

Perrie blinked, then a dangerous grin spread over her face. “Which one’s Louis?” 

Harry blushed and shook his head, just as Zayn said “It’s the one who always dresses up in Christmas shit isn’t it? The little one? He’s just your type.” 

“Oh my god Harry! You had a crush all this time and you didn’t tell us!” 

Harry was a burning hot red now. “It’s not a proper crush! I just think he’s really cute.”

“What else?” 

“I dunno, I like his smile? And his eyes, too. And he volunteers at a nursing home so he must be sweet. And he’s very festive.” 

Perrie laughed, then hid her grin behind her hand when Harry pouted. “I’m sorry love, but that is just so cute!”

“It doesn’t matter, anyway, does it? Tomorrow’s the last time I’ll see him.” 

“It’s a good thing, anyway. I’m pretty sure he’s been nicking your biscuits.” Niall added, and Perrie frowned at him. 

“Why would you even say that?”

“Just overheard something between the two of them. Sounded a bit weird.” 

“What did you hear?” 

“Liam asking why Louis said you didn’t have any. Makes it sound like you did, you know?”

It’s was Harry’s turn to frown. “He wouldn’t do that. That’s not like him.” And when all his friends turned to look at him with condescending smirks he blushed deep and muttered out an excuse to leave. 

\---

It was a stupid reason for Harry to feel so sick, but when Louis and Liam walked into their classroom on the Friday, the last day of school before holidays, Harry’s stomach was doing tumbles. 

Louis was in a green fluffy jumper covered in baubles and tinsel, decorated like he was a tree, and the sight had Harry grinning wide. All of his fears were gone, and he started to think that Louis was much more of a Christmas treat then the hundred or so gingerbread biscuits he was owed. 

Louis jingled when he walked, and it made Harry snort out a laugh so loud that he instinctively covered his mouth, like he was trying to shove it back down his throat. It made Louis smile though, and give him a little wink. 

He felt a jab in his shoulder, and turned to see Perrie grinning wide. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before.” 

“Shut up.” Harry muttered, and turned so he could watch Louis while he got the chance. 

He watched him pass out the last of the gingerbread biscuits, _the last minute orders_ he’d heard Liam say, with that beautiful little smile. Harry could see all his cute little pointy teeth and wanted to kiss each one. 

He was still picturing it when Louis appeared before him, grin impossibly wide. “I’ll be right back!” he said, and jingled his way out of the classroom. When he returned, he was holding a Santa sack that he dumped on the ground in front of Harry’s desk. “There’s got to be at least two hundred in there. The nans were up all last night making them.” Louis was smiling wide and proud, and Harry was dreadfully close to tears.

“The nans stayed up making biscuits for me?” 

Louis’ smile dropped to something a lot more careful and kind. “Yeah, and they were happy to do it. They’re all a bit in love with the boy that got his entire year a biscuit each.”

Harry blushed and chewed at his lip. “I didn’t want anyone to go without.”

“Don’t open it up until we leave though, yeah?” Louis said, and Harry nodded quick because he’d do anything the other boy asked of him. 

So when he did finally open it, it was when he was trying to shove the sack of biscuits into his locker. He figured he’d take a handful out to have at lunch, so pulled at the rope until the bag opened up and inside at the very top was an envelope. It was covered in doodles of Santa and his sleigh and his reindeers and his hat, with a few trees and bells and stars and snow. His name was in the middle of it, in nice fancy cursive that he traced with his fingertip, slow and careful like how he imagined it had been written. 

Inside was a letter, and his eyes immediately skipped to the end of it to see that it was from Louis. 

_Dear Harry Styles,_

_I’ve got something to admit and I’m too embarrassed to do it in person so here you go. I’ve been stealing your biscuits._

_I didn’t mean to at first, but I got a bit jealous that first day I saw you and I’d just lied and said you didn’t have any so I didn’t have to give you a gift that wasn’t from me. And then the second day you looked really sad, and I felt like shit when I realised you were the one everyone was talking about at the home. It kind of killed me, I guess, that you weren’t just really cute but also incredibly sweet._

_Anyway, once I started taking the biscuits I couldn’t really stop but then yesterday you’d just given up all hope and I realised that what I was doing was so fucking weird. Forgive me, please?_

_Sorry. Again._

_Louis._

At some point, Perrie and Zayne had appeared in front of him so when he looked up they were grinning at him expectantly. 

“It’s a note from Louis. He’s been taking my biscuits.” 

“How romantic.” Perrie said, and Zayn frowned.

“You fucking kidding? It’s stalkery as fuck.”

Harry ignored Zayn and turned to the pretty blonde. “What should I do?” 

“You already know.” 

 

Which is how Harry found himself skipping school for the first time in his life to visit the nursing home down the road. He’d ran all the way there, so when he hurried in through the doors of the place he was breathing deep and flushed red. 

“Is Louis here?” he’d huffed out, and the woman behind the desk looked back skeptically.

“Who’s asking?”

“Harry Styles.” He said back, and the lady’s face fell from suspicious to exhilaration. 

“Oh love, not _the_ Harry Styles?” 

“Maybe.”

“The one who bought all those biscuits? And who received a lot of biscuits in return?”

“Yeah, then, I’m _the_ Harry Styles.” 

The lady smiled wider and clasped her hands together, looking at him like he was cuter then a puppy in pyjamas. “Of course Louis is here, love. Right after me.” 

He was escorted through the building by the little woman, who told everyone they passed who he was. They had quite a large group formed when Harry finally saw Louis in the rec room, and tried to lose his new friends when he approached the pretty boy. 

Louis turned red when he saw them, and looked down at his toes to avoid Harry’s eyes. 

“Hi.”

“Hey. I didn’t expect you to want to see me at all. I was such a creep.” 

Harry smiled and shook his head, but stayed silent until Louis looked up at him. “I don’t mind, it was worth it. To not get all those biscuits, I’d much rather have you.” 

Louis smiled and said “That’s lame.” 

“Sorry.” 

“It’s okay, I liked it.” 

“So like, did you want to go out sometime?” 

“How about now? Want to get lunch?” 

“I’m meant to be in school.” Harry said, and Louis just smiled. “So yeah, I can get lunch. Umm, are you allowed to leave?” 

“Of course he is!” someone yelled from behind them, and Harry turned to find they had a nice little audience of grandmas and grandpas. 

“Oh, alright. Let’s go then.” 

Louis smiled and took his hand, and they walked together out of the home. 

“Now that we aren’t under pensioner surveillance, can I kiss you?” 

Harry blushed and nodded his head, and stopped in the middle of the pathway so Louis could stand in front of him. 

Louis reached up to his own head and pulled the reindeer antlers off, roughing his hair up with his hand until Harry replaced it with his own. One that he then moved down to rest along Louis’ jaw. 

“Are you sure you want to kiss me? I’m still in High School.” Harry breathed out, and wanted to die a little bit when Louis laughed. It sounded prettier then sleigh bells. 

“Only if you want to kiss me. I’m in University. And I’m dressed like a tree.” Louis said with a grin that reached all the way up to his eyes. 

So Harry put his other hand along Louis’ jaw too, and played with the hair at the nape of his neck. It was flicking up in cute little swirls, and Harry ran through it with his fingertips.

He heard Louis’ breath hitch and he grinned. “I’m going to kiss you now then.”

“Alright.” 

But Harry still wasn’t moving, too afraid that when he looked away he would disappear. 

So Louis did it for him, pushed up until their lips were touching and wrapping his arms around Harry’s waist. Harry could feel the antlers digging into his back and it just made him grin. Louis pulled back and asked, smiling small, “What is it?” 

Harry kissed him quick, on his nose and his cheek and his lips one more time before he said “Santa came early.” 

Louis barked out a laugh and shook his little head. “You’re an idiot.” 

“I know. Are we going to go to lunch or what?” 

“Shouldn’t I go home and change first?” 

Harry looked down at him and grinned. “Most definitely not.” Then took the antlers out of Louis’ hands and popped them on his head. “Come on then. We’ll have to save room though, I’ve got a locker full of gingerbread.”

Louis blushed red and began to mutter out some more apologies, so Harry shut him up with another kiss. 

“I don’t mind, Louis, honest. Just having you makes up for it.”

“You’re lame.”

“You already said that. Besides, it’s not totally forgotten. I’ve got something in mind for you to do to make up for it.”

Louis’ eyes widened and he nodded his head quick. “I’ll do anything.”

“Have you by any chance got an elf costume lying around? I’d very much like to see you in one.”

Louis laughed and punched Harry’s shoulder, before taking his hand and beginning the walk to his car. “I do, yeah. I only get it out for special occasions though.”

“Lucky I’m a special occasion.”

“Yeah.” Louis grinned and nuzzled his nose into the crook of Harry’s neck. “Lucky.”

**Author's Note:**

> I remade on [Tumblr ](http://harryventura.tumblr.com)


End file.
